


Attention Starved

by WordSmithBreaker



Series: A Child's Mind [2]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-12
Updated: 2015-05-12
Packaged: 2018-03-30 05:19:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3924346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordSmithBreaker/pseuds/WordSmithBreaker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been a while since he was a toddler and the lack of attention is getting to him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Attention Starved

Superboy was frustrated. Not mad, because things got a little red for him when he got mad, but frustrated.

With a light flick of his wrist he sent another rock skipping across the surface of the ocean. He called it training but everyone knew it was just his excuse to spend some time out of the base and alone when he started to feel crowded.

He was feeling frustrated because everyone was treating him weird now. Before he was a toddler, everyone left him alone and gave him his space. Then when he was a toddler, he was everyone’s main priority. He would never admit it, not even under bribe of cookies, but he had enjoyed it. Now that he was back to himself, Superboy found himself trapped between the two.

He really didn’t like it.

“Are you done pouting yet or do you want me to go find you a bigger rock to throw?”

“I’m not pouting.” Superboy stated as he turned away from the ocean.

“Right.” Artemis’ right eyebrow shot up, “You’re a teenager now, it’s called brooding.”

Superboy did the mature thing and stuck his tongue out at her. Artemis responded in kind before skipping a pebble of her own.

Superboy was jealous of how she always managed to hit the seagulls just as they landed.

“So what set you off this time?” Artemis asked as she waved Superboy over to sit next to her on the bank where sand and dirt met.

“Nothing.”

“You’re a terrible liar.” Artemis stated, handing him another rock to throw.

Superboy rolled his eyes as he tossed the rock. Of course he was a terrible liar, he never learned how to lie.

“Nothing worth mentioning then.” He corrected.

“Superboy, look at me.”

A few beats later he met her gaze, her gray eyes searching for something in his. He knew she found whatever she was looking for when she shook her head with a small smile.

“What?” Superboy’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

“You really are pouting out here aren’t you?”

“I’m not pouting.” Superboy intended for it to come out as a growl, not the whine that it did.

“Yeah you are.” She reassured him, placing an arm around his shoulder, “Admitting you have a problem is the first step in recovery kid.”

Superboy unconsciously leaned into the touch, relishing in the physical contact that wasn’t training. Was this really too much to ask for?

The pair sat there, staring out at the ocean. Artemis with her arm around Superboy, who was resting his head against her shoulder. It was a quiet afternoon, the only noise being the waves and the occasional seagull squawking.

Artemis blinked as a soft light radiated from Superboy and he slowly began to shrink. He wasn’t quite the toddler he had been but he was far removed from the teenaged body. If she had to guess, she would say between six and eight.

“Hey, want to go get some ice cream?” she asked as the shock wore off. She handled worse on a daily basis.

“Yeah!” Superboy’s face lit up as he scrambled out of Artemis’ grip and to his feet, “Can we get sundaes?”

“Sure kid. It’s the best kind of ice cream.”

Artemis smiled when Superboy hesitantly slipped his hand in hers, she would be lying if she didn’t admit that she missed this.

“Want to tell me why you were out there pouting?” she finally asked as they sat down with their ice cream.

Superboy ignored her for a moment in favor of digging into his ice cream, which was his main priority. Artemis and her questions could wait until at least half of this was gone. Four bites in, he wasn’t prepared for the sharp cold that enveloped his head.

“Artemis! It’s cold!” he whimpered, “Make it stop.”

“It’s just a brain freeze.” Artemis tried her best to keep the amusement off her face, “It’s your brain’s way of telling you that you’re eating cold stuff too fast. Rub your tongue on the roof of your mouth and it’ll go away.”

“Stupid ice cream.” Superboy mumbled as he followed her instructions.

“It’s not the ice cream’s fault. You just ate too fast.”

They fell into a comfortable silence again as Superboy worked his way through the brain freeze and Artemis picked at her ice cream. She would go buy him something warm to eat if it didn’t fade away soon though.

“It was because nobody does this with me anymore.” Superboy muttered as he dug his spoon into his half melted ice cream, “Ever since I got back to being me, well big me anyway, everyone has been too busy to make time for me. You guys have school, and Kara and the other grown-ups have League business. It’s like now that I’m big again you guys don’t want to spend time with me.”

“We all love spending time with you kid, you know that.” Artemis reassured, “We just don’t know how you want to anymore. When you were stuck as a toddler, we knew we could take to a park, or the beach, or even just watch a movie together and you would be perfectly happy. Now we don’t know if you’ll be happy or bored.”

“I’d still be happy.” Superboy nodded, “I just want you guys to pay attention to me. Now that I know what it feels like….”

“It’s okay kid, don’t worry.” She reached across the table and ruffled his hair, “Now I know and that means everyone will know by morning. But for now, eat your ice cream before it melts.”

That spurned Superboy into action, carefully shoveling the half-melted ice cream into his mouth. He did remember to pause every few bites so he wouldn’t get another brain freeze, so Artemis spared a moment to send out a short message to the others telling them tonight was a movie night so they all better be on base.

She didn’t bother to look at the confirmations, her attention focused on watching Superboy try to clean his face off with the cheap napkins and pointing out all the spots he missed.

 

* * *

 

The rest of the team was already gathered in the common room when Artemis returned with Superboy in tow, two movies on the table and a bowl of popcorn already filled.

“Hey, you’re just in time!” Robin’s usual smirk was firmly in place, “You’re the swing vote Supes.”

Superboy’s face lit up and he pulled his hand free of Artemis’ and dashed over to where Wally and Robin were attempting to sway his vote. Artemis shook her head as she took her place on the empty couch.

‘ _Should we be concerned Artemis?’_ Kaldur’s voice gently filtered into her head.

‘ _It’s nothing serious. He just didn’t like not getting any attention.’_

 _‘That….sounds about right.’_ M’gann’s confusion filtered through the conversation, _‘But why is he young again?’_

 _‘I would guess the magic reacted to his mood. We were warned that something like this could happen.’_ Kaldur shifting his position slightly was the only sign that he was mildly concerned, ‘ _I believe he will be fine once he feels more like himself.’_

_‘Definitely. Though we’re going to have to talk to Red, Canary, and Supergirl. He’s missing them too. And they can afford to take him out for ice cream.’_

“Artemisss,” Superboy whined from where he had climbed up next to her with a blanket, “stop talking in your head. You’re gonna miss the movie.”

“Right, right.”

There was a silent agreement as the team watched the movie to make a point of doing this at least once a week, if for nothing other than the sheer joy it brought Superboy.

 

* * *

 

With a grin, Breaker closed the screen he had peeking into Superboy’s corner of the multiverse. Sure he had cheated and shown the boy how to accidentally trip the trigger, but he knew that Superboy wasn’t going to have more than a vague memory of what happened.

He just really couldn’t handle unhappy kids when he had a way to fix it.


End file.
